The 2021 NFL season was an uncharacteristically down year for the Baltimore Ravens’ defense. Injuries, particularly on the back end, ravaged a unit that ultimately ranked a lowly 19th in points and 25th in yards allowed.
Things look a lot better headed into a new campaign after general manager Eric DeCosta retooled via both free agency and the draft. Safeties Marcus Williams and Kyle Hamilton, along with cornerback Kyle Fuller, will fortify the secondary.
If there are still lingering question marks they concern the front seven, where the team’s primary edge-rushers have been impacted by injuries. There are are also doubts about one of the key players in the middle, a former first-round pick who has been named on the hot seat by ESPN.
3rd-Year Pro Facing ‘Critical Time’
Patrick Queen is expected to be the signal-caller at the heart of the linebacker corps. Instead, the ex-LSU standout is facing a make-or-break season, according to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley.
Queen is Hensley’s pick for ESPN’s list of players and coaches from each team on the proverbial hot seat with preseason drawing to a close: “It’s a critical time for Queen because the Ravens will have to decide whether to exercise his fifth-year option next offseason. He hasn’t become the every-down middle linebacker that was originally envisioned. Queen has struggled in coverage and getting off blocks, which is why he was moved to weakside linebacker.”
Not being able to stay on the field for all three downs and handle both phases of an offense are ominous signs for a player drafted 28th overall in 2020. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with Queen’s numbers, 98 tackles, two sacks and a fumble recovery last season, but his problems go beyond statistics.
Specifically, Queen has often struggled using the proper technique when playing run fits, something Spencer N. Schultz of SB Nation’s Baltimore Beatdown noticed when watching film of the Ravens against the Indianapolis Colts last season:
Patrick Queen has a lot on his plate in a complicated defense at 22 years old. He’s improved leaps and bounds in coverage, but seems to be leaving his fundamentals of playing LB behind in reps every game.
He needs to use his lateral tech and rely on athleticism to make plays.
Good run fits are essential in the AFC North, where the Ravens face two games apiece against Nick Chubb of the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers workhorse Najee Harris and Cincinnati Bengals star Joe Mixon.
It’s also vital for Queen to clean up his game in coverage. Unfortunately for the Ravens, he still appeared to be having some issues in that area during certain reps at training camp, per Hensley:
Play of day at Ravens practice Tuesday:
Lamar Jackson dropped a nicely thrown pass to J.K. Dobbins along the sideline.
Patrick Queen had tight coverage on Dobbins, who was running a wheel route. But Jackson put it in the perfect spot.
No matter how good the throw was from Lamar Jackson, opposing teams will continue to scheme ways to isolate and target Queen in coverage until he proves he can make more plays in space.
If there are reasons to believe Queen can turn things around, they concern the Ravens coaching staff and the player’s own history of slow, but successful development. Hensley noted how “new defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who was Queen’s position coach in 2020, said the game has slowed down for him. It took until Queen’s third season before he broke out at LSU.”
Familiar coaching and a greater comfort with the game at the NFL level are important, but so is the superior personnel around Queen entering his third season.
Young LB Has Stronger Supporting Cast
The new faces in the secondary will help fix what was the worst pass defense in football last season. So will the return to health of primary cover men Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters.
Macdonald having a full contingent in the defensive backfield will help him spare Queen from some of the mismatches he faced last season. Like this once schemed by the Bengals and detailed by Jake Liscow of Locked on Bengals:
The Ravens might have some coverage issues today.
Bengals go empty, Ravens in single high, Patrick Queen over Boyd has no chance on the out and up, and there’s no one to help over the top because Ja’Marr Chase gets the safety
Every offense wants to find ways to isolate a wide receiver against an inside linebacker, but the Ravens can counter this year by putting more safeties on the field. In addition to Williams and Hamilton, veterans Chuck Clark and Tony Jefferson will help Macdonald call some multiple-safety schemes and find better matchups against four and five-receiver looks.
That would still leave Queen needing to clean up his efforts against the run, something a revamped defensive line can help him achieve. Calais Campbell is back, but so is 6’0″, 345-pound nose tackle Michael Pierce, who returned to Baltimore after two years with the Minnesota Vikings.
Pierce will see the field along with will rookie Travis Jones, a 6’5″, 333-pound second-round pick who has already been described as “special,” per Jonas Shaffer of The Baltimore Sun.
A beefier, more disruptive three-man front will keep linebackers like Queen clean from blockers and free to flow to the football. It’s something Queen has to take advantage of by boosting his tackling numbers.
The player himself is confident he will be better in his third season. Back in June, he told reporters “I’m comfortable now, everything is in a rhythm, so now that I can be in those positions, I can stay on the field all the time now,” per Clifton Brown of the team’s official site.
That improved comfort level needs to show up more often in the box score, or the Ravens will be looking to move on from Queen a year from now.
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Ravens’ Former 1st-Round Pick Facing a ‘Critical Time’